CHAPTER 10.
THE RIFT IN THE WALL.
When Ulpius suddenly departed from Numerian's house on the morning of the siege, it was with no distinct intention of betaking himself to any particular place, or devoting himself to any immediate employment.

It was to give vent to his joy--to the ecstacy that now filled his heart to bursting--that he sought the open streets.

His whole moral being was exalted by that overwhelming sense of triumph, which urges the physical nature into action.

He hurried into the free air, as a child runs on a bright day in the wide fields; his delight was too wild to expand under a roof; his excess of bliss swelled irrepressibly beyond all artificial limits of space.
The Goths were in sight! A few hours more, and their scaling ladders would be planted against the walls.

On a city so weakly guarded as Rome, their assault must be almost instantaneously successful.
Thirsting for plunder, they would descend in infuriated multitudes on the defenceless streets.